Cardinal Schönborn encouraged Pope Benedict to accept election
January 19, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has acknowledged that he was the prelate who wrote a private letter to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, urging him to accept the papacy if he was elected by the conclave.
Pope Benedict XVI had disclosed that he was moved by the letter, which helped persuade him to accept election although he did not want to be Pontiff. But he had not identified the cardinal who had written it.
In the same interview, Cardinal Schönborn said that it was “unseemly” for Archbishop Georg Ganswein to disclose private exchanges with Pope Benedict in his forthcoming book.
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